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Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Russia and Egypt Continue Ka-52K Negotiations

Following a visit to Egypt, a Russian official has discussed the status of a sale of Ka-52Ks to the country.

Rostec's Director for International Cooperation, Viktor Kladov, discussed his delegation's visit to Egypt with Tass News Agency on June 7, 2017.

Kladov said, "We have just returned from Egypt where we discussed this issue, helicopter carriers were initially meant for the Ka-52K helicopters, so they will be used by the ground forces and will also be deployed on the Mistral helicopter carriers."

Egypt ordered two Mistral helicopter carriers from France in 2015 after a deal between Russia and France for the vessels fell apart over the situation in Ukraine. Russia had initially planned to put Ka-52Ks onboard the vessels upon delivery.

Kladov continued, "I think, since a policy decision has been made, signing a contract is only a technical matter."

The two Mistral ships were delivered to Egypt last year, and Cairo has since negotiated with Russia for hardware to equip its new ships.

In April, Tass News Agency reported that negotiations were ongoing and a Rostec delegation would soon travel to Egypt. Tass cited a source as saying, "Negotiations continue, the Russian delegation has left for Egypt to discuss with the Egyptian side the parameters of the potential deal with the available technical proposals on the communications and control equipment."

Egypt has already ordered 46 Ka-52s, which are expected to be delivered this year. It is unclear if the discussions regarding the helicopter's naval variant (Ka-52K) are intended to amend the order for 46 or be part of an entirely new order. Further adding confusion is the fact that this sale of 46 helicopters has often been reported as 46 Ka-52Ks.